Various cleaning articles have been created for dusting and light cleaning. For example, cloth rags and paper towels used dry or wetted with polishing and cleaning compositions have been used on relatively flat surfaces. But, rags and paper towels are problematic for reasons such as hygiene (the user's hand may touch chemicals, dirt or the surface during cleaning), reach (it may be difficult to insert the user's hand with the rag or paper towel into hard-to-reach places) and inconvenience (cleaning between closely-spaced articles typically requires moving the articles).
To overcome the problems associated with using rags and paper towels, various dust gathering devices having feathers, lamb's wool, and synthetic fibers brushes have been utilized for more than a century as illustrated by U.S. Pat. No. 823,725 issued in 1906 to Hayden. Such dust gathering devices can be expensive to manufacture, and are therefore designed to be cleaned and reused. Disposable cleaning article have been developed which have limited re-usability. These disposable cleaning articles may include brush portions made of synthetic fiber bundles attached to a non-woven sheet. The dust gathering cleaning article may be elongate along a longitudinal axis, flat, and/or may be “fluffable” to increase the surface area of the fibers. Such devices may be made, for example, according to U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,047,435; 6,813,801 B2, and/or EP 1,299,026 B1.
These references disclose disposable cleaning articles attachable to and removable from a reusable handle, such as generally illustrated in WO 02/34101 A1 filed Oct. 25, 2001. The handle may have a grip which is held by the user during cleaning and one or more means for removably attaching the handle to the disposable cleaning article. Common means for removably attaching the handle to the duster include one or more elongate tines. The one or more tines may be inserted into one or more respective complementary sleeves disposed on the cleaning article. One common geometry comprises two longitudinally parallel elongate times on the handle which are inserted into complementary longitudinally parallel elongate sleeves disposed on the attachment side of the cleaning article.
Various attempts have been made to improve upon the handle. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,978,509 and U.S. Pat. No. 7,293,317 teach a handle having a hand grip pivotally secured to the fork and a support member pivotally connected to the front of the handle, respectively. U.S. Pat. No. 4,788,435 teaches a brush body rotatable mounted on a holder. U.S. Pat. No. 7,219,386 teaches a telescopic handle. However, these developments do not assist with retention of the cleaning device on the handle.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,413,673 and D572,813S teach handles having corrugations to frictionally engage the duster. The corrugations generally extend from the top, or wider face, of the tine. This geometry has the disadvantage that the corrugations may tear the duster when it is being inserted on the tines. U.S. D579,615 S, sold by the instant assignee under the name Swiffer Dusters®, and the aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 7,383,602 teach tines having thin, deformable projections extending from the sides, or narrow faces, of the tines. These references further teach a clip, disposed near the proximal ends 20 of the tines. However, the projections and clip can likewise cause tearing of the cleaning article upon insertion.
One attempt in the other direction is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,047,435 which teaches a monotocally increasing head portion. A similar attempt is found in the commercially available Azuma handle. This handle has minor undulations in the vertical direction, which undulations are small compared to the thickness of the tines and do not provide significant friction against the cleaning article. These arrangements do not adequately retain the cleaning device during use. An attempt to overcome this problem is found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,953,784 which teaches a handle having a dedicated attachment portion. But this approach increases both and complexity of assembly.
Another approach is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 7,251,851 which teaches a single spiral member. The front end of the spiral member is biforked. However, this arrangement is even more complex than any previously discussed, as it requires an inflected member. Further, this type of member also contributes to tearing of the cleaning member. Likewise, the planar handle of U.S. Pat. No. 4,829,622 contributes to tearing of the cleaning device.
While attempts to improve the cleaning characteristics of dust gathering devices have been made, the search still continues to reduce the problems and inefficiencies of dusters, particularly as related to a plural sided duster for cleaning a target surface.